(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention refers to an improved union group for locking a music instrument, for example a percussion instrument such as a cymbal of an acoustic drums, to a support element such as a rod of the drums themselves.
(2) Description of Related Art
As known, a drums is a music instrument composed, among others, by a plurality of cymbals, arranged in pairs or individually, struck during an exhibition by the drummer through special poles, also called drumsticks, made mostly of wood, plastic or their proper combination.
The cymbals are supported by a plurality of rods, for example of the type so-called “giraffe”, arranged one next to the other in order to usually occupy a truncated sector of circumference which is front to the position from which the musician accesses every component of the drums to play.
The cymbals are connected with the corresponding supporting rods, placed close to a support base such as the stage for a concert, through appropriate union groups which keep the cymbals in the use position, available to the percussion by the drumsticks handled by the drummer.
In particular, in order to get a better sound, it is recommended that the cymbals are coupled with the supporting rods so that the drumstick does not hit them crosswise but it is as much parallel to them as possible in the percussions phase.
Each union group supports inferiorly and at the centre the relative cymbal so that the circular portion of this which is hit by the drumstick in order to get the sound is free, cantilevered.
However, the union groups of the known type used to lock a cymbal to a rod of a music instrument such as drums have some recognized drawbacks.
A first drawback of the union groups concerned belonging to the known art comes from the high number of components provided by them in order to get the locking of the cymbals.
Indeed, the traditional union groups include two base laminar rings coupled coaxial with an end of the supporting rod, a lower bearing and an upper bearing, arranged coaxially and superiorly to the laminar rings, the plate being clamped between said bearings.
Each of the aforesaid bearings, consisting of a cylindrical element which has an axial through hole, prevents friction between the union group and the cymbal and generates reaction forces orthogonal to the two surfaces.
The known union groups comprise, then, a coverage and seal ring, positioned above and coaxially to the upper bearing, and a fastening member, also called screwing throttle.
The fastening member is inserted into the axial through holes of each of the components just mentioned till to engage in the screw provided at the end of the supporting rod in order to carry out the definite blocking of the group as a whole and, therefore, of the cymbal.
First of all, such a constructive shape means that, through the known union groups, the assembly to the rod and disassembly from the rod operations of the cymbal are inevitably rather laborious.
Secondly, a large number of components means a reduction in the structural strength of the group, as it is clear from a statistical calculation.
A second drawback of the known union groups is due to the need to disassemble from the supporting rod and separate one from each other all the components which make it up if it is desired to remove the cymbal from the rod itself.
A further drawback, likelihood the most felt by the concerned persons, derives from the fact that the union groups of the known technique cause a certain instability in locking cymbals.